The Boater Versus the Beast

July 13, 2007 -- It is the fabled river made famous by a song, but in northern Florida the Suwannee River is becoming famous for something else.

Large, jumping sturgeon -- very big fish.

"All of a sudden, I see the head of this big fish coming out of the water and I thought 'Oh my gosh, I've got to turn,'" said Sharon Touchton, who watched a sturgeon leap in her path in March during a trip to the Suwannee with her Jet Ski club.

It is a bizarre spectacle watching the fish jump in the path of boats and Jet Skis. In fact, it's hard not to laugh, until you discover that these fish have become a serious hazard.

Nick Touchton saw his wife lying motionless in the water next to her Jet Ski.

"Once I got there I saw that she was totally unconscious. I really thought she was dead," he said.

Sharon was airlifted to Gainesville for emergency surgery after colliding with an airborne jumping sturgeon. Her tongue was sliced and four fingers were severed. Only three were reattached.

Watch the story Monday on "World News" at 6:30 p.m. EDT

"I've got plates and pins in and the orthopedic surgeon here said I'm lucky to still have this finger," said Sharon, pointing to her fourth finger. Then she points to the stub of her missing little finger. "I didn't realize how much you use a little finger."

"She drops a lot of things," her husband interrupted.

Just two weeks ago, Taylor Owens was boating with her family when without warning a jumping sturgeon landed on her leg.

"It shattered her bone and it tore her main artery in her leg," said Owens' mother, Wendy Gordon. "So they had to go in and it was three hours of surgery." For the next six months Taylor will have four giant pins in her leg as the bone heals.

In an effort to see firsthand what is causing these calamities, we enlisted Karen Parker of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

She took us to the spot where the Santa Fe and Suwannee Rivers meet. It is a hot spot for jumping sturgeon.

At times it feels like the waters of the Suwannee are boiling as the giant sturgeon rise from the deep, one after another.

These are big fish. Up to 8 feet long and 300 pounds. The species -- the Gulf sturgeon -- winters in the Gulf of Mexico and swims up river in the spring to spawn. The Gulf sturgeon used to be in many of the rivers around the region, but now it is only in the Suwannee.